Groß-Gerau
Encyclopedia
Groß-Gerau is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau
Groß-Gerau (district)
Groß-Gerau is a Kreis in the south of Hesse , Germany. Neighboring districts are Main-Taunus, district-free Frankfurt, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Bergstraße, Alzey-Worms, Mainz-Bingen, and the district-free cities Mainz and Wiesbaden....

 district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area.

Location

Groß-Gerau lies in the north of the Hessisches Ried, the northeastern section of the Rhine rift.

Neighbouring communities

Groß-Gerau borders in the north on the community of Nauheim
Nauheim
Nauheim is a community in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany.- Location :Nauheim lies 3 km northwest of the district seat of Groß-Gerau 16 km northwest of Darmstadt and 6 km southeast of Rüsselsheim. After the Second World War, many instrument makers from the Sudetenland such as W...

, in the northeast on the town of Mörfelden-Walldorf
Mörfelden-Walldorf
Mörfelden-Walldorf is a town in the Groß-Gerau district, situated in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hessen, Germany.- Location :Mörfelden-Walldorf is situated within a triangle formed by the South Hessian cities of Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt and Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt International...

, in the east on the community of Büttelborn
Büttelborn
Büttelborn is a community in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Büttelborn lies on the edge of the northern Hessisches Ried, the northeastern section of the Rhine rift, and even today is still partly rural...

, in the southeast on the town of Griesheim
Griesheim
Griesheim is a town in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hessen, Germany. It is situated approx. 7 km west of Darmstadt.-History:...

 (Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach, Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Bergstraße, Groß-Gerau, and the district-free city of Darmstadt, which it surrounds.-History:...

), in the south on the community of Riedstadt
Riedstadt
Riedstadt, with its municipal area of 73.76 km² is Groß-Gerau district's biggest town by land area. It lies in Hesse, Germany, about 12 km southwest of Darmstadt.-Location:...

 and in the west on the community of Trebur
Trebur
Trebur is a community in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany. It is 13 km southeast of Mainz, and 8 km south of Rüsselsheim.-Location:Trebur is located in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region...

.

Constituent communities

Groß-Gerau consists of the centres of Berkach, Dornberg, Dornheim, Auf Esch, Groß-Gerau and Wallerstädten.

History

Already by Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 times, the area forming today's town of Groß-Gerau had great importance. A fort in the area of the constituent community of Auf Esch ensured a bridgehead for the Roman provincial capital of Moguntiacum (Mainz), even before the Limes
Limes Germanicus
The Limes Germanicus was a line of frontier fortifications that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Raetia, dividing the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes from the years 83 to about 260 AD...

 was established and southern Hesse became Roman. Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) B44 from the southern tip of the old pheasantry (at Auf Esch) to Dornheim corresponds exactly with the old Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...

 from Mainz through Groß-Gerau to Ladenburg
Ladenburg
Ladenburg is a town in the district of Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Neckar, 10 km east of Mannheim, and 10 km northwest of Heidelberg.It has an old town from the Late Middle Ages...

. It led to the fort's south gate. With the founding of the Civitas Auderiensium (Dieburg), the fort was forsaken. The camp (vicus
Vicus (Rome)
In ancient Rome, the vicus was a neighborhood. During the Republican era, the four regiones of the city of Rome were subdivided into vici. In the 1st century BC, Augustus reorganized the city for administrative purposes into 14 regions, comprising 265 vici. Each vicus had its own board of...

) remained and became a market village. The fact that this vicus and the later mentioned Wasserburg Dornberg (moat-ringed castle) corresponded very closely in location would be no accident.

The Gerauer Mark (Gerau March, the woods between Wallerstädten and Messel) had its first documentary mention in one of Mainz Archbishop Hatto I
Hatto I, Archbishop of Mainz
Hatto I was archbishop of Mainz from 891 until his death.-Biography:He belonged to a Swabian family, and was probably educated at the monastery of Reichenau, of which be became abbot in 888...

's donation documents in 910. In the time that followed, the Lords of Dornberg
Dörnberg
Dörnberg is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany....

, held sway in the region, likely doing so as the Hohenstaufen
Hohenstaufen
The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings in the High Middle Ages, lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufens also became Kings of Sicily...

 emperors' vassals in the Frankfurt Palatinate (in 1160, a moat-ringed castle is mentioned in what is now the Dornberg area). After the Lords of Dornberg died out came the Counts of Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small city in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Katzenelnbogen.-History:...

 as their successors. The new overlords managed to procure town rights for Groß-Gerau in 1398. In 1479, Count Philip the Elder died without a male heir and the county passed to Hesse. In 1578, building work on the Town Hall was begun. This was where the Schöffengericht ("Jurymen's Court") and the Schultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...

en
(roughly "sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

s") appointed by the Landgrave
Landgrave
Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...

s sat. Groß-Gerau's town church was burnt down in 1634 by Imperial troops during the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

. Landgrave Ludwig VI of Hesse-Darmstadt renewed Groß-Gerau's town rights in 1663 for a payment of 24000 Gulden
Rhenish guilder
Rhenish guilder is the name of the golden, base currency coin of the Rhineland in the 14th and 15th centuries.- Formation :...

. These rights included the abolition of compulsory labour, market stall levies, representation in the Landtag
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

and the right to drive Jews out of the town.

In the 19th century, industrialization began in Groß-Gerau, too, as elsewhere. Given the connection to the Hessische Ludwigsbahn (railway) with the Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

-Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

 stretch in 1858 and the Frankfurt am Main-Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....

 stretch in 1879 (the Riedbahn), a multifaceted industrial life sprang up. The town became headquarters to metalworking
Metalworking
Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...

 businesses (FAGRO), canneries (Helvetia), cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

makers (Groß-Gerau is where "Mainz" cheese is made) and the sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 industry. From 1869 to 1871, Groß-Gerau was the epicentre of a series of mostly weak earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

s. A plan to connect two local railway stations and the surrounding communities together with a tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

way in the late 19th century fell through, and there are still no trams in the town even now.

Recently, the town's, and more particularly the district's economic situation has worsened. Relatively high debt loads and strict controls of public institutions (especially at the district level) by the government presidium in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

 have led to this.

The name Groß-Gerau means "Great Gerau", and the town shares its name with the village of Klein-Gerau – "Small Gerau" – a constituent community of Büttelborn.

Population development

(Each time as at 31 December)
  • 1998 - 23,000
  • 1999 - 23,147
  • 2000 - 23,349
  • 2001 - 23,342
  • 2002 - 23,565
  • 2003 - 23,600
  • 2004 - 23,519

Town council

Groß-Gerau's council is made up of 33 councillors, with seats apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006: (in parentheses changes from municipal elections held in March 2001):
  • SPD
    Social Democratic Party of Germany
    The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

     10 seats (-4)
  • CDU
    Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
    The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

     8 seats (-)
  • KOMBI 11 seats (+4)
  • Greens
    Alliance '90/The Greens
    Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

     3 seats (-1)
  • Left Party
    Left Party (Germany)
    The Party of Democratic Socialism was a democratic socialist political party active in Germany from 1989 to 2007. It was the legal successor to the Socialist Unity Party , which ruled the German Democratic Republic until 1990. From 1990 through to 2005, the PDS had been seen as the left-wing...

     1 seat (+1)

Note: KOMBI is a citizens' coalition.

Executive and mayor

The executive of the district town of Groß-Gerau consists of the directly elected mayor, the honorary first town councillor, a full-time town councillor and a further five honorary town councillors.

The current mayor Stefan Sauer of the CDU was elected on 18 March 2007.
  • List of Mayors of Gross Gerau

Coat of arms

Groß-Gerau's civic coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 might heraldically be described thus: The shield: Party per fess, above, a lion rampant striped per fess three times argent three times gules, armed, langued and crowned Or (or langued gules, depending on source), below, in Or a cross pattée gules and between the arms above dexter an onion with shoots vert, sinister a cabbage vert, below dexter a cabbage vert, sinister an onion with shoots vert, both onions per bend sinister. The crest: a crenellated wall with three crenellated towers Or.

Groß-Gerau's oldest known town seal dates from the 16th century. There are none surviving from the time when town rights were first granted in 1398. The seal in question shows a cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...

 and an onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

, perhaps symbolizing horticulture's importance in the area. The cross first appeared about 1600 in combination with the vegetables, and this new symbol was used in town seals and on buildings. It is unknown why the cross came to be in the town's seal. It is also seen on a municipal limit marker from 1596, but without the produce. The arms were granted in 1901, and also include the lion of Hesse in the chief.

The arms shown in this article and on the town's official website include the crest consisting of a crenellated castle wall with three crenellated towers. This crest does not appear in some earlier versions.http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/g/grossger.htm

Partnerships

Groß-Gerau maintains a ring partnership with these towns: Brignoles
Brignoles
Brignoles is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.It was the summer residence of the counts of Provence...

, Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, since 1959 Bruneck
Bruneck
Bruneck is the largest town in the Puster Valley in the Italian province of South Tyrol. Bruneck lies at the confluence of the Ahr with the Rienz Bruneck is the largest town in the Puster Valley in the Italian province of South Tyrol. Bruneck lies at the confluence of the Ahr with the Rienz...

, South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, since 1959 Tielt
Tielt
Tielt is a Belgian municipality in the province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Tielt proper and the towns of Aarsele, Kanegem, and Schuiferskapelle.-History:Some traces of Gallo-Roman occupation have been found in this area...

, West Flanders, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, since 1959 Szamotuły, Greater Poland Voivodeship
Greater Poland Voivodeship
Wielkopolska Voivodeship , or Greater Poland Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Poznań, Kalisz, Konin, Piła and Leszno Voivodeships, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, since 2000

Transport

Groß-Gerau is very advantageously placed for transportation. Here is where Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B42/L3482 and B44, and likewise the Frankfurt-Mannheim and Wiesbaden-Darmstadt-Aschaffenburg railway lines. The north and south Autobahn interchanges on the A 67 provide connections in all directions. Frankfurt International Airport
Frankfurt International Airport
Frankfurt am Main Airport , or simply Frankfurt Airport, known in German as Flughafen Frankfurt am Main or Rhein-Main-Flughafen, is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, Germany, southwest of the city centre....

 is 15 minutes away by Autobahn. Even major cities are right nearby (Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

 11 km, Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

 23 km, Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

 18 km and Frankfurt am Main 28 km).

Established businesses

  • FAGRO Preß- und Stanzwerk GmbH (closed down)
  • Procter & Gamble
    Procter & Gamble
    Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....

    , Werk Groß-Gerau (formerly Wick; personal hygiene and pharmaceuticals)
  • Südzucker AG, Werk Groß-Gerau (closed down)
  • Frigoropa GmbH (EK19), daughter company of Nordfrost AG (deepfreezes)
  • Erlenbacher Backwaren GmbH, daughter company of Nestlé
    Nestlé
    Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...

     AG

Media

The only daily newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 is the Groß-Gerauer Echo, belonging to the Darmstädter Echo newspaper family.

Schools

  • Luise-Büchner-Schule
  • Schwenkschule (former: Johannes-Angelus-Schule)
  • Grundschule Dornheim
  • Schillerschule
  • Nordschule
  • Berufliche Schulen Groß-Gerau
  • Grundschule Wallerstädten
  • Martin-Buber-Schule
  • Prälat-Diehl-Schule
  • Goetheschule
  • Astrid-Lindgren-Schule
  • Liberta Schule

Sons and daughters of the town

  • Carina Gödecke, German politician
  • Bernd Ullrich, German artist
  • Maike Wetzel, German writer and filmmaker
  • Indira Weis
    Indira Weis
    Verena Weis ; is a German singer and actress, who rose to fame as a member of the R&B/Pop group Bro'Sis. She's currently working on a solo career.- Early life :...

    , German actress and singer
  • Daniel Zschätzsch, inline speedskater
    Inline speed skating
    Inline speed skating is the sport of racing on inline skates It is often called inline racing by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice speed skating that many competitors are now known to switch between inline and...

     and speedskater
    Speed skating
    Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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